Trucker Charged In Third Slaying

LEBANON, Tenn. -- Authorities have filed a third set of murder charges against an Illinois truck driver who Nashville police say confessed to six killings in several states including Indiana.

Bruce Mendenhall was taken to Wilson County on Tuesday to be arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville, Lebanon police said. Her body was found June 6 stuffed in a trash can at a truck stop in Lebanon, 26 miles east of Nashville. She had been shot.

Last month Nashville police arrested Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, Ill., and charged him with criminal homicide in the death of Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25. She had been found dead with gunshot wounds on June 26 at a truck stop along Interstate 24 in Nashville.

A police detective had gone to the truck stop on July 12 to conduct a follow-up interview in the investigation of Hulbert's death. When he got there he saw a truck fitting the description of a vehicle that was spotted the night before Hulbert's body was found. The detective said the driver, Mendenhall, appeared nervous when being questioned and granted permission to look inside his truck.

Mendenhall was taken into custody when the detective spotted what appeared to be blood in the cab, police have said.

Since then, police in Birmingham, Ala., also have filed murder charges against Mendenhall in the death of 44-year-old Lucille "Gretna" Carter.

Investigators said she was shot with a .22-caliber weapon and dumped nude next to a trash bin on a service road. She was found July 1 with plastic bag over her head and duct tape around her neck.

Nashville police also have said Mendenhall implicated himself in a slaying in Georgia and two in Indiana, including one in Lake Station and one in Indianapolis. He is being held without bond in Nashville.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have contacted Nashville investigators to learn if Mendenhall could be involved in unsolved slayings in their areas. The FBI has been creating a timeline of Mendenhall's travels during his 20 years as a trucker to determine other cases in which he could be a suspect.